Fr Peter's newsletter notes - February 2007

Sunday 4th February 2007

There is a relationship between the ability to pray, and the conduct of life, that is beneficial to both

Every priest knows that prayer is something much easier to talk about than to put into practice, and it is unintentionally easy to make prayer sound either too difficult or too success-orientated. However, I was greatly assisted in putting my thoughts together for a talk, by a Benedictine nun, who has written a CTS pamphlet entitled ‘Living Prayer’. She first sets Christian prayer in the context of faith. The act of faith is both the recognition that the universe has a cause, and that this cause, God, has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ. Hence prayer, the dialogue with God, is not the cry into the dark of popular imagination but the response within to the Father’s love for the world.

The content of prayer therefore begins with a relationship with Jesus Christ and, through Him, to the Virgin Mary and the Saints of the Church. Hence the building blocks for prayer are the Church’s Liturgy; Mass, the Divine Office, devotions, and the reading of the Scriptures (Lectio Divina). It is only here that the believer can discover Jesus Christ, and thus begin to form a relationship with Him.

The author continued then to emphasise the intimate relationship that exists between prayer and personal life. The seeking of union with Christ in prayer is not just quiet time activity, or a search for a significant experience, but is a process that runs throughout the day. It is therefore no surprise then that a life of constant distractions, habitual sin, and possession overload will result in prayers full of distractions coupled with listlessness and a strong sense of time-wasting. This, I believe, is most people’s experience when they try to pray and, sadly, too many give up trying in front of this apparent failure.

However the experience of these ‘failings’ are the way to open the heart to God, and so become amenable to the possibility of ‘dying’ to some aspects of this life in order to seek a life closer to God. Many saints have seen this connection, and say that the journey to the pinnacles of the spiritual life start with humble beginnings. According to St Bernard of Clairvaux, the total experience of God (ecstasy), combined with the complete forgetfulness of self, begins at the mundane level of going beyond oneself in compassion and self-giving in daily life. A life of habitual concern for others, and of generosity of time, will make a more intense form of prayer life a real possibility.

The Benedictine nun’s pamphlet certainly helped me organise the talk but, as with all talks on prayer, it is the practice that matters. The end of the meeting was dedicated to ‘Lectio Divina’, as the introduction to one way of praying that made sense both of the theory and context previously given. The Gospel passage, Luke 17:1-10, which comprises a few short statements by Jesus on discipleship, was read twice slowly. Each participant chose a phrase that immediately struck them - ‘Watch yourselves’, ‘Increase our faith’, ‘We are merely servants’. During the ensuing silence we repeated the sentence to ourselves. Afterwards everyone said how much easier it was to focus sitting together, with a short phrase on our lips, than by sitting by oneself trying to seek calm amidst the many distractions of the day.

I am glad to have been able to practise in some small way what should never remain just theory.

Sunday 18th February 2007

St Peter lies at the origin of each Gospel and his path of discipleship should become our own

Anyone who has ever picked up a biblical commentary in the hope of enlightenment is usually left sadly disappointed. These books can look rather off putting with their excessive footnotes, and in their systematic doubt as to the veracity of each biblical passage. This process of systematic doubt leaves little left for the Christian to believe as, much of the Gospel in their opinion is the product of the early Church. These later ‘additions’ are not seen as explanatory or benign but the product of malevolent forces within the structures of the early Church, and which mask the true Jesus.

The bogus quality of so much of this intellectual activity may be seen in the quest to prove that St Mark wrote the first Gospel and, with it, the deprecation of the other two, Matthew and Luke, as sources for Church teaching. The evidence is non-existent, and only the prejudice in favour of a shorter and less complex text justifies such a conclusion. This argument also, by necessity, includes the positing of a, now lost, written source accounting for the similarity of many parts of St Matthew and St Luke, again for which no evidence exists.

The obsessive concern for literary connections, lost manuscripts and the deprecation of ‘later interpretations’, has made many lose sight of the pivotal role of the apostles and St Peter in particular. It seems to me increasingly obvious that St Peter and with him the apostles, lie at the origin of each of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). This should hardly be surprising because the Gospels are the inspired writings by the sacred authors who wrote from within an existing worshipping and evangelising Church. My own investigations into the issue have made me more than ever convinced of the Petrine origin of these Gospels. The Gospel of St Matthew was by tradition composed in Antioch, and exhibits the most ordered structure, evidence of an ordered ecclesiastical community, of which St Peter was the first Bishop. The Gospel of St Mark has been considered, since the early 2nd century, to have been composed in Rome, and its origins lie in the ‘memories’ of St Peter. The relation with Luke is somewhat different, but Peter remains at the heart of this Gospel of ‘discipleship’.

The relation between Peter and Jesus frames the beginning and end of His public life. These two events, the calling of St Peter and Jesus’ prayer for St Peter on the night of his arrest, and St Peter’s denial, are filled with religious insight. These historic events have been recorded with the future in mind, our future, so that every believer can become part of the Gospel. When Peter says to Jesus, ‘Leave me Lord, I am a sinful man’, after doubting Jesus’ words over the potential catch of fish, the subject of last week’s Gospel, it is a religious insight with which every believer can identify. When Jesus tells Peter, ‘Satan, you must know, has got his wish to sift you all like wheat; but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail’, He is also saying that to us, both to give confidence that His call is not a fickle one, and that the life of faith is lived against opposition that cannot just be explained in human terms. Jesus continues to say to Peter that, after ‘you have recovered, you in your turn must strengthen your brothers’, thus pointing to Peter’s future role in the first days of the Church, and so emphasising the continuity between the historic life of Jesus and the present life of the believer.

The Sacrament of Confirmation Part 1 (CCC 1285-1296)

The sacrament of Confirmation finds it’s meaning through that of Baptism. Confirmation makes for a more perfect bond with the Church through enriching the candidate with the special strength of the Holy Spirit, and thus to defend the faith by word and deed.

The origins of the sacrament are found in the Old Testament. The Spirit of the Lord would be given to the expected Messiah, and the fullness of this Spirit would be poured out onto the chosen people. These prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and thus was full of the Spirit from conception, a fact recognised by the descent of the dove, the Holy Spirit, at His Baptism by St John the Baptist. Jesus promised that the Spirit and this was poured out onto the Apostles on Easter Sunday and at Pentecost. The giving of the Holy Spirit by the Apostles was associated with the laying on of hands, which action looked to perpetuate the original Pentecost. In addition the catechumen was also anointed with chrism, and thus became literally a ‘Christian’, one anointed by the Spirit.

Most western Christians are confirmed long after Baptism, because it became in the early Middle Ages impossible for the diocesan Bishop to attend every baptism to administer the chrism and lay on hands. These two actions were reserved to the Bishop in normal circumstances as they signify the unity, catholicity and apostolicity of the Church. Even in the Eastern Churches the connection with the Bishop is maintained as the priest who confirms must use oil blessed by the Bishop.

The separation of Confirmation from Baptism has meant that an initial anointing is made by the priest after the pouring of water over the infant’s head. This anointing is a participation in priestly, prophetic and kingly offices of Jesus Christ. The Bishop anoints again to mark the candidate and commission him or her to live the Gospel publicly in the world without fear.

The Sacrament of Confirmation Part 2 (CCC 1285-1296)

The celebration of the sacrament of Confirmation requires a previous consecration of the chrism oil by the Diocesan Bishop, and is normally done at the Chrism Mass in the Cathedral during Holy Week. This liturgical act emphasises the close connection between the Bishop, representing the Church, and the confirmation candidate.

When Confirmation is celebrated separately from Baptism, as is the norm in Latin Church, candidates renew their baptismal promises and repeat the profession of faith in order to emphasise the close connection between the two sacraments. The central part of the rite is the extension of the Bishop’s hands over the candidates while invoking the Holy Spirit, an action that has its origins in the New Testament. This is followed by anointing with chrism on the forehead of the candidate with the words, ‘Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit’. The rite concludes with the sign of peace between the Bishop and the newly confirmed.

The effect of Confirmation is to receive the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit, just as the apostles received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The Church has traditionally understood the gift of the Holy Spirit as being sevenfold, an idea taken from the Book of Isaiah (11:2-3). These gifts are related to the natural virtues (prudence, justice, courage and temperance) and the supernatural ones (faith, hope and charity). The gifts help shape the personal psychology of the believer to accept the promptings of the Holy Spirit. In this way the confirmed Christian can become a true witness to the faith.

Confirmation should be administered to all the baptised because it is a sacrament of initiation. The question as to the time for Confirmation remains open. All that is required is evidence of an adult faith, and this is not necessarily related to age. Confirmation is not by default the sacrament of teenage years, though it has become so in many places.

The preparation for Confirmation should lead to a more intimate union with Jesus Christ, and a familiarity with the Holy Spirit. This is revealed in the awakening of a sense of belonging to the Church. The immediate preparation for receiving the sacrament should include penance and prayer, so that the Holy Spirit can be received in peace, and its effects become obvious through a readiness to act.